Factbox: Chinese investments in Portugal

Reuters Staff

2 Min Read

LISBON (Reuters) - Chinese companies have become major investors in Portugal, first drawn by cheap assets at the time of the country’s 2011-14 bailout by the European Union and IMF, and now involving a $10.8 billion offer for all of power utility EDP.

Many wealthy Chinese have also moved to Portugal, taking advantage of the country’s “golden visa” scheme that allows foreign individuals to buy property valued at 500,000 euros ($600,000) or more in return for residency.

Following are a list of the main Chinese investments in Portugal:

EDP - China Three Gorges bought a 21 percent stake in late 2011. It paid 2.7 billion euros for the stake, a premium of 53 percent at the time. CTG beat Germany’s E.ON and Brazil’s Eletrobras in the privatisation dictated by the terms of the country’s bailout.

CTG has built up its stake to 23 percent since then. It also bought a 49 percent stake in EDP’s unit EDP Renewables for 359 million euros in late 2012 and invested 2 billion euros buying minority stakes in wind energy projects.

China’s state-owned international investment company CNIC holds a five percent stake in EDP, which it has acquired in the market since 2015. It last raised its holding by two percent at the end of last year. The two state-owned companies’ stakes are counted towards one holding by the Chinese state.

REN - China’s State Grid bought a 25 percent holding in REN, which runs Portugal’s electricity grid, for 387 million euros in early 2012.

Millennium bcp - China’s Fosun International bought a 16.7 percent stake in Portugal’s largest listed bank in 2016. It has subsequently raised its holding to 27 percent, which is worth around 1.2 billion euros at current market prices.

Fidelidade - Portugal’s largest listed insurance company was bought by Fosun for 1 billion euros in 2014.

Luz Saude - Fosun also bought health care provider Luz Saude - Portugal’s largest by the number of hospitals - in 2014 for 460 million euros.